How ATL campaigns can improve content visibility

“We need to stop interrupting what people are interested in and be what people are interested in.” – Craig Davis, former Chief Creative Officer at J. Walter Thompson.

Every great brand has a plethora of valuable information, making content marketing an essential aspect of any successful digital marketing campaign. Although it does take more effort to create quality content that your audience cares about, your efforts will pay off in the long run.

Users who share similar core principles as your brand will happily take the time to read your articles and share relevant content with their network.

Users reading your content will unconsciously develop an opinion of your brand and determine whether you’re trustworthy based on how engaging, educational, and valuable the content is. By consistently publishing content, your organisation will gradually build brand awareness within the community.

As a result, it’s essential to take time to create content targeted to the right audience who will benefit from the information, as well as your products and services. In addition, the quality of your content will also help determine how effective your digital marketing strategy will be and contribute to increased engagement and consequently improve conversion rates.

Social media platforms are a great tool to help spread awareness around your brand’s content and articles published on your blog. However, in a recent case study by We Are Social and GlobalWebIndex, statistics show that users have preferred sharing content through private messaging apps, labelled as ‘dark social’.

Almost 82% of users shared content privately through Facebook Messenger, 56% on WhatsApp and 34% on Instagram’s direct messaging and 32% through Snapchat – based on analysis conducted with over 3,000 internet users where almost 63% used these channels to share content. In comparison, ‘open’ social media was used by 54% of respondents, and word of mouth by 51%.

The reasoning behind sharing content privately was that users of all age groups felt more comfortable being themselves. The most popular content shared privately revolved around entertainment, gaming, clothing, electronics, food and drink and travel.

What does this mean for your business?

This is not a new development, and it’s been trending since 2017. As a result, it’s essential to be mindful of your business’ above-the-line (ATL) campaigns.

For Andre van Loon, research and insight director at We Are Social; it is about augmentation. “Brands can have a big above-the-line push, but when it comes to consumers talking about the brands they like, the things they want to do or buy, and following others’ recommendations, more and more of that now happens in private apps and by sharing links,” said van Loon.

Brands must remember that consumers will take their opinions elsewhere even if they have a certain degree of influence over users. As a result, marketers should be targeting and optimising their content so that ATL awareness campaigns run at the same time as easy-to-share digital content, which consumers will then be free to use and discuss in their own time.

References:

1. MarketingTech (2017), Available at: https://bit.ly/2zegs9o

2. 6 Ways to Improve Your Content’s Sharability (2016), Available at: https://bit.ly/2YPkWwm

3. Why is Content Marketing Important? (2018), Available at: https://bit.ly/2HFHCLL